Global Category Leader

Job Description

Job DescriptionJob description:IBM is seeking a highly motivated and experienced individual with comprehensive strategic sourcing and category management expertise in the categories.Specifically, we are seeking to fill the role of Global Category Leader (GCL) for Corporate & Professional Services. There are six Global GCL roles spanning the full range of indirect spend categories. The GCLs are part of the SCM Delivery Leadership team reporting to the Director of IBM Procurement Services (IPS Delivery) and are instrumental in driving revenue growth, ensuring exceptional results across our portfolio of SCM clients and developing strategic sourcing capabilities with respect to their specific categories. GCLs are true domain experts with deep market knowledge and sourcing expertise within their category domain. GCLs actively liaise with our global Sales, Solutioning and Delivery teams to provide domain-specific expertise throughout the full lifecycle of new and existing client accounts.The ideal candidate will have an in depth working knowledge and command of the following sub-categories that fall within this domain including Corporate & Professional Services categories (e.g. Contingent Labor, HR Services, HR Benefits, Legal, Consulting, Learning, etc).Responsibilities:Category Strategy Leader responsibilities include, but are not limited to:New Business / Sales Support Be recognized as a category expert and procurement thought leader both inside and outside of IBM (E.g. Developing White Papers, presenting at Industry Conferences, etc.)Support sales efforts by presenting to clients our differentiated sourcing capabilities and global category expertise including market trends, sourcing insights and supporting case studiesEngage effectively in client meetings, site visits, solutioning workshops, Oral presentations and other pre-deal sales efforts to gain client trust and confidence as a Sourcing and Category Expert to win new businessIdentify and lead on account expansion opportunitiesNurture and develop exec-level business relationships and networks to bring new client prospects into the business development pipelineBuild strong working relationships with global Sales and Solutioning teams and work effectively in a highly matrixed, global organization.Solutioning & Due DiligenceSupport the development of tailored solutions for new clients including validating spend and savings estimates, delivery resource requirements, technology enablers and other differentiated solution elements to best meet new client requirements in a highly effective and efficient wayLead and/or facilitate due diligence activities to validate and refine solutions based on in-depth client interaction and spend analysis. Serve as the senior delivery lead during due diligence efforts to continue to build client trust and rapport while finalizing proposed solutions.Establish solutioning and delivery performance standards (e.g. savings targets, etc.) for all sub-categories. Track and monitor actual performance and adjust standards accordingly.Work as part of a bid pursuit team to establish practical sourcing plans and quick win opportunities to ensure delivery teams have strong multi-year sourcing plans that can be readily executed to meet savings targets.Account PerformanceBuild strong working relationships with Account Leads and Sourcing Managers and work effectively in a highly matrixed, global organization to meet all client service level expectations.Monitor and report category performance across all client accounts and provide proactive execution support and guidance as necessary to ensure all performance targets are met including savings targets, SLA adherence and client satisfaction.Provide sourcing and category management expertise and support to client accounts and develop multi-year transformation plans to move all clients up the procurement maturity curve each year to ensure high value add and high rates of renewals/extensions.Support in team staffing processes to deploy sourcing resources flexibly across accounts as needed to meet all delivery commitments and to develop and grow sourcing talent.Capability DevelopmentProvide global thought leadership for remaining leading edge and differentiated with respect to sourcing and category management within their category domains.Prepare and deliver annual strategic capability development plans for your respective category domain including investment requirements and business cases.Develop, share, and maintain comprehensive category strategies, sourcing approaches and associated category enablement tools that allow for superior category sourcing across sectors and geographiesFocus on driving increased standardization of sourcing delivery approach at a category level and pursue year on year delivery efficienciesPartner with IBMs internal procurement department (T&O), especially global commodity councils, to share best practices and improve knowledge and resource sharing to the measurable benefit of our SCM clients. (E.g. price benchmarks, multi-client agreements, vendor relationships, etc.)Drive the knowledge management processes including capturing client case studies, sourcing examples and leading practices from all accounts and populating our knowledge management tool (e.g. Practitioner Portal, etc.)Team Management Line management responsibility for all Sourcing Consultants aligned to your category domain including goal setting, performance evaluations, coaching, mentoring and employee development processesProvide further functional leadership over a globally matrixed team of Sourcing Consultants, Category Managers and Sourcing Analysts aligned to your category domain.Partner closely with the line managers (e.g. Category Manager Leads) of all delivery resources supporting your category domain to build and grow sourcing skills and to address performance improvement plansDevelop and deliver coaching, training and mentoring programs to continually improve the breadth and depth of sourcing and category management expertise across all sub-categoriesMaintain and grow a global network of subject matter experts by sub-category to support global sales and delivery requirements.Required Technical and Professional ExpertiseFluent EnglishGood Communication skillsAdditional language skills preferred but not essentialProcurement Sourcing and Category Management experience at least 3 yearsMinimum of eight (8) years experience in Strategic Sourcing and Strategic Category Management with full accountability for large scale savings targetFive plus years of relevant work experience in the core category domain (E.g. Contingent Labor, HR Services, Legal, Consulting) including deep sourcing/CM expertise across a wide range of sub-categories in this domain.Leadership skills: deep business analysis and strategic thinking skills, strong executive-level communication and relationship building skills, excellent influencing and change management skills., high levels of personal drive, initiative and commitment to business goals, willingness/readiness to travel.Preferred Tech and Prof ExperiencePreference for candidates with prior Supply Chain Consulting and/or Procurement Outsourcing experience with reputable Service ProvidersMBA preferred but not requiredEO StatementIBM is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

Keyskills :
sourcingprocurement outsourcingcategory managementscmspend analysisprocurementsupply chain consultingstrategic sourcingcategory managervendor